Tim Brando – Sports Updatehttp://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate
Blogging special sports events and storiesThu, 27 Oct 2016 18:43:48 +0000en-UShourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.6.151022412Spencer Tillman joins Fox Sports for college football seasonhttp://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2015/08/spencer-tillman-joins-fox-sports-for-college-football-season/
http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2015/08/spencer-tillman-joins-fox-sports-for-college-football-season/#respondSat, 01 Aug 2015 23:17:34 +0000http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/?p=52543Spencer Tillman says he has agreed to call college football games this fall for Fox Sports, where he will be teamed up once more with his former CBS Sports on-air partner Tim Brando.

Tillman, the longtime Houston area resident and former Oilers player, did studio work for CBS for 16 years, primarily focusing on the Southeastern Conference. He spent all but one year during that period working alongside Brando, who left CBS prior to the 2014 season to call games on the Fox networks.

“The old band is getting back together,” Tillman said. “It will be exciting, and it will give me a chance to balance things out. We sat in the studio for years, and it was great. There’s no better seat.

“But to be a complete journalist, it’s important to be able to do all things. The way things have worked out, I will be able to do games with Tim. The people at Fox have been great, and I look forward to it.”

Tillman also will continue to call Texans preseason games on KTRK (Channel 13).

2014 Most-Watched Sporting Events

Tim Brando’s 2014 career gamble of leaving CBS Sports, which led to his current position at Fox Sports, has worked out so well that he’s giving up his Sirius XM radio show after Thursday’s broadcast.

Tim Brando worked for CBS for 18 years. (Manny Milan/CBS)

Brando, who recently added golf to his schedule of football and basketball play-by-play chores for Fox, said this will be the final week of his radio show that began on Sporting News Radio and Yahoo! Sports Radio before moving to Sirius XM’s College Sports Nation channel in 2013.

“Retiring the show is something I felt I needed to do,” Brando said. “The success at Fox in general is the primary reason. It’s been 14 years, and I think it’s time to concentrate on what I feel I’m best at and have one full-time job instead of two.”

Brando made the move from CBS, where he hosted the network’s Saturday afternoon college football studio show, because he wanted to expand his play by play opportunities. The travel associated with play by play, however, cut into his radio duties.

“Radio blended well with studio work,” he said. “It’s a tougher mix when you’re calling games every week.”

Fox last week announced that Brando will follow each day’s featured group on the company’s live stream digital broadcast of the U.S. Open. He also may do some NFL games for Fox this fall and last year called the Pac-12 championship game for the network.

“This has been the best year I’ve ever had,” Brando said. “Fox has treated me so well.”

Brando disclosed in late March that he would be ending the radio show at the end of April. He said his radio show colleagues in his hometown of Shreveport, where the show originated, have landed other positions or are in the process of doing so.

]]>http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2015/04/tim-brandos-radio-show-will-sign-off-thursday/feed/050429Brando to call college football, basketball games for Fox Sportshttp://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2014/06/brando-to-call-college-football-basketball-games-for-fox-sports/
http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2014/06/brando-to-call-college-football-basketball-games-for-fox-sports/#respondThu, 26 Jun 2014 00:23:44 +0000http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/?p=41159It took a few weeks for things to fall into place, but Tim Brando got what he wanted Wednesday: a new job with Fox Sports that will include play by play duties for college football and college basketball.

Fox announced Wednesday that Brando, the former CBS Sports and ESPN veteran who hosts his SiriusXM Radio show from his home in Shreveport, will call games this fall with partners to be announced on Fox Sports and Fox Sports 1.

Fox, of course, has a good inventory of Big 12 games along with the Pac-12, so Brando even as we speak may be trying to line up tee times at Colonial in Fort Worth and Barton Creek in Austin to match his new assignments.

His primary emotion, though, is one of gratitude for a chance to call both football and basketball games after his amicable departure earlier this year from CBS Sports, where he called NCAA Tournament games and hosted studio shows, including the Saturday afternoon SEC-themed pregame show.

“No matter how confident you are or how well you do your job, there’s no guarantee you’re going to get to continue doing it,” he said. “Exactly what I wanted to happen to my career has happened. It just took a little longer getting to the finish line than I suspected it would.”

Brando earlier had acknowledged reports that he would be doing basketball games for ESPN’s SEC Network with no reference to football work. An ESPN spokesperson said Wednesday regarding Brando, “We were in discussions but didn’t come to an agreement. We wish him well.”

“People want to identify announcers with certain conference, and when you’ve done the SEC on CBS for 16 years in the studio and worked for 18 years at a network doing the SEC, you’re going to get pigeonholed into that thought process,” he said. “Everybody thought that it was a fait accompli that I was going to the SEC Network, and I was never sure that was going to happen.

“I’ve always fashioned myself as a national broadcaster. I looked at the product Fox has and the brand that I have as a broadcaster, being mostly college football- and college basketball-oriented, and I was hopeful from the beginning there would be interest from them.”

It took awhile, though. Brando said he talked two weeks ago last Monday with Fox officials in Los Angeles, and the agreement was announced Wednesday.

“I’m really stoked about what I am going to get to do,” he said. “Football is the big tail that wags the dog, and they offered me a full package of games through the season to go along with college basketball, which is enhanced by their Big East package.

“I wanted to break away from the studio and do games, and this will give me that platform.”

Brando is likely to have a prominent position on Big 12 and Pac-12 games as the network transitions Gus Johnson into more soccer duties as Fox takes over the World Cup in 2018. His broadcast partners have not been announced, but Charles Davis is a frequent guest on his radio show, and he has worked for years with Bill Raftery on CBS basketball games.

]]>http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2014/06/brando-to-call-college-football-basketball-games-for-fox-sports/feed/041159Brando show to be simulcast on CBS Sports Net; ESPN announces Longhorn Network showshttp://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2011/06/brando-show-to-be-simulcast-on-cbs-sports-net-espn-announces-longhorn-network-shows/
http://blog.chron.com/sportsupdate/2011/06/brando-show-to-be-simulcast-on-cbs-sports-net-espn-announces-longhorn-network-shows/#commentsWed, 15 Jun 2011 16:42:07 +0000http://blog.chron.com/sportsmedia/?p=567We have updates on two fronts on this Wednesday. First, Tim Brando’s Sporting News Radio show will be simulcast on CBS Sports Network beginning in late August. Second, ESPN has announced the first batch of shows for its Longhorn Network, which launches Aug. 26.

Brando’s show will be simulcast from a TV studio in Shreveport from 9 a.m. to noon and will continue airing on the 50 or so radio stations that carry it via SNR. The show does not air on KGOW (1560 AM), so TV (and online) will be the only ways to access the show in Houston.

“No more can I do a show wearing my smoking jacket,” Brando said, laughing. “It’s life-altering, but it’s going to be exciting. It’s a win-win. We need to improve our radio distribution and CBS Sports Network wants to improve its content, and both can accomplish their goals with this.”

Brando also said he has re-upped for three more years with CBS to call college basketball games and host studio shows.

On the ESPN front, Longhorn Network will be anchored, as expected, by a 10 p.m. weeknight news show to be called Longhorn Extra. Other shows announced will be Rewind with Mack Brown at 7 p.m. Mondays, Texas All-Access at 8 p.m. Wednesdays, Game Plan with Mack Brown at 7 p.m. Thursdays and Texas GameDay two hours prior to kickoff on football Saturdays.